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July 25, 2009

Maritime center helps students take robotics to new level

By Cameron Kittle The Gloucester Daily Times Sat Jul 25, 2009, 02:03 AM EDT

It's not uncommon to see middle-school kids chase around soccer balls or whiffle balls in the summertime — but it doesn't usually happen underwater with a remote control submarine.

Forty students in two groups of 20 from Gloucester's O'Maley Middle School have been working for the past two weeks to build their own miniature, robotic submarines at the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center in the second year of a new state-funded summer program.

The project is part of the SEA Initiative, approved in 2007 as a multi-year partnership between Gloucester Public Schools, the Gloucester Education Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Edgerton Center.

The two-week program doubled from 20 open spots to 40this year, and officials hope to improve student learning in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Mary Kay Taylor, education director at the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center, said the kids have each spent time building, testing and balancing their own submarine over the past two weeks. All students used PVC pipe to make the frame, assembled the robot's motors and did the soldering under adult supervision to come out with an underwater robot all their own.

"It was nerve-wracking the first day, but after that they all became pretty skilled with it," Taylor said.

Yesterday, in their last day in the program, Taylor said she challenged them the challenge to try and use recyclable bottles and materials to catch as many different sports balls as they can out in the ocean by the Heritage Center.

Instead of working on their own, the kids were allowed to pair up and try to catch more balls than the other students in a five-minute time period.

"It's good because at the high school, we actually do a similar version of this, and they can come in with some experience," said Kurt Lichtenwald, a physics teacher at Gloucester High School. "Basically, the ones we do are on steroids."

Lichtenwald said they had already lost some balls to the ocean earlier, but he hopes the kids have fun with it and try to corral as many balls as they can in the five-minute time period.

Each team worked diligently, making slight adjustments to their robots and testing them outside in a large pool of water. The dedicated looks on their faces revealed the pride of building something all their own — although their hard work didn't always translate into confidence.

"We're not going to win, I'll tell you that," said Ryan Hilshey with a smile, as he attached rocks to his submarine to change the weight distribution. "It depends on how other people do, but I wouldn't count on it."

Cameron Kittle can be reached at gt_reporter@gloucestertimes.com